Youngstown, Ohio – 9/10/12 - In an event titled “Freedom from Toxic Fracking Waste: National Rally Day,” to be held on September 12, 2012, a national coalition of local coordinators and groups in communities across America will hold simultaneous rallies throughout the day to shine light on the numerous problems associated with toxic fracking waste and its disposal and transport, including its links to earthquakes, spills, leaks, and contamination.

The rally is being organized by Frackfree America National Coalition (www.frackfreeamerica.org ) and NEOGAP (Network for Oil & Gas Accountability & Protection, www.NEOGAP.org ) to help raise national awareness of serious risks to public health and safety and drinking water sources posed by the oil and gas industry’s continual creation of billions of gallons of toxic fracking waste that must be “disposed of” somewhere.

A local "Freedom from Toxic Fracking Waste: National Rally Day" event is being planned for Youngstown, Ohio, where the Frackfree America National Coalition is based.

National Rally Day activities, which will include a march, in Youngstown, Ohio, will be held on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, beginning at The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown, Channing Hall, at 1105 Elm St. (Elm & Illinois), at 3:00 PM, Eastern time. ( event here )

(Media are invited to arrive at 2:45 PM, if desired, for interviews with rally speakers, including Staughton Lynd and Doug Shields.)

At the church, there will be a showing of the 18-minute film by Gasland filmmaker, Josh Fox, titled “The Sky is Pink,” which features Doug Shields, former Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania City Council President, who in 2010 sponsored and secured the first ban of shale gas extraction drilling in the city of Pittsburgh. Doug Shields will be in attendance at this showing and will speak and answer questions after the film. Legendary civil rights activist, historian, author, and attorney, Staughton Lynd, will also attend the rally and speak from the steps of Stambaugh Auditorium, where he and rally marchers will go after the gathering at the Unitarian church.

From Stambaugh Auditorium, rally participants will head down the hill to a site where noted abolitionists Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison arrived, by canal boat, in Youngstown in 1847. After a brief speech commemorating that occasion, marchers will continue their procession and gather outside of the Youngstown City Hall for the final leg of the “Freedom from Toxic Fracking Waste: National Rally Day” march.

Media, the general public, elected officials, and health workers are invited and encouraged to attend.

“The disposal, handling, and transport of enormous amounts of toxic fracking waste is a concern for all states. Where will the waste go? No one is sufficiently safeguarding our air quality and drinking water sources and the public health and safety. Governor Cuomo is now considering whether to lift New York’s hydrofracking moratorium despite having no good plan for disposing of fracking waste that would be created if fracking is allowed. Fracking and related processes cannot be safely done with the technology as it stands today. No amount of regulation can make it safe,” said Susie Beiersdorfer of Frackfree America National Coalition, based in Youngstown, Ohio.

“We can’t let government and industry permit injection wells in our communities in the face of such large local opposition to the wells. Reports of serious adverse health effects are being ignored. To me this shows an unacceptable disregard of public health and safety issues,” said Vanessa Pesec of NEOGAP.

So far, rallies or events are being planned in Alabama, California, Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Rally organizers say there is still time for other concerned citizens nationwide to sign-up to create or join a rally in their own locality at this link: